November 03, 2004
So?
I got an interesting email from the more rational of my leftwing brothers.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shares in problem-plagued Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL - news) rose to their highest level in more than three years on Wednesday, carried by a rally in oil-related stocks after President Bush 's re-election.
This suspicious surge turns out to be a 4.33 percent increase from the day before, and gain of almost 60 percent from its 52 week low, just short of a year ago. This is in the context of a broad-based one day market surge of 1.12 percent. If he bothered to read the entire article this quote came from he would have learned that the increase in value comes from the health of the oil sector, their core market, and from plans to deal with their bankrupt KBR division, the one which has had, since the Clinton era, fast track cost-plus military contracts. If he had actually gone so far as to research the stock he would have seen that its climb has tracked that of its sector over the last year.
A little more research would have shown him that Merck & Co. was up 4 percent, Pfizer Inc. up 2.6 percent, and Cigna Corp. up 2.9 percent. The pharmaceuticals are up for political reasons, they are now at a reduced risk of having to extend the practice of selling at marginal cost, extorted by the Canadian government, to the U.S. market. The insurance company, on the other hand, just happened to release their third quarter earning numbers today.
But it is so much simpler just to go Halliburton! Cheney! Unocal! Enron! Gaaah!
Posted by triticale at November 3, 2004 10:01 PM